gender

For most of us, a haircut is a periodic necessity, but in fiction, haircuts only happen to make a statement. Being an appearance-related story element, the use and connotations of […]

Many people in the YA community were less than enthused when the Locus Awards announced their 2016 finalists. The YA finalists were all men, one of whom was nominated twice, […]

You’ve seen her in every historical adventure or fantasy film you’ve ever watched: The plucky female character who wears pants, refuses to get married, and shares her outspoken opinions about […]

(The following post is based on this Twitter discussion. It contains minor spoilers.) For such a major release, the reception of The Force Awakens has a surprising lack of contention. […]

I don’t like princess stories. I don’t like princess stories even if the princesses kick ass, even if they reject their princessy obligations and just want to lead normal lives, […]

So if you follow me on Twitter, you may have picked up some vague hints that I kinda liked Mad Max: Fury Road. And you may have guessed that I […]

Star Wars is such a genre-codifying franchise that sometimes it’s hard to remember that it had its own influences. In fact, Star Wars drew heavily from many sources. When compared […]

[Trigger warning for discussion of rape and sexual violence.  Spoiler warning for Garth Ennis’ Battlefields Vol. 1.] One key decision I made while writing Among the Red Stars was the […]